Castlerea Community school girls’ basketball team get ready for what is the team’s biggest match in nine years.
After seeing off Coláiste Pobail Setanta in the semi-final the Roscommon School now looks forward to today’s All Ireland Final against Holy Child Killiney.
Speaking ahead of the game was the manager of the team Joe Henry who told Shannonside reporter Daithí Boland about the excitement around the school
“Huge excitement! We have four coach loads so they are all practicing their songs and they have their flags and banners ready”
Castlerea come into this game on the back of a good challenge in the Semi Final with a 5 point victory of the Dublin school Setanta, 44 – 39.
It was a slow start for Castlerea as they trailed 13 – 2 at the early stages
“We missed a lot early on we missed a few lay ups but we were under serious pressure cause they were a very tall team and we just couldn’t get near the basket”.
However despite the poor start this side showed great character to draw themselves back in by the end of the first quarter to trail by just four.
The second quarter seen a major improvement and Castlerea seemed to have a foot hold of the game as they went in at half time five points clear and by the end of the third they extended their lead to fourteen.
Setanta though would not give up easy and made it a real battle in the fourth quarter clawing their way back ever so slightly.
The Roscommon School seem to be on a mission after the disappointment of last year when they were defeated in the league and cup Semi Finals and Joe believes the experience of last year has been a real factor in the teams journey this year
“When we lost those we got together and promised ourselves we would be back this year to win it”
Today’s opponents Holy Child Killiney beat Setanta in the Dublin final by six points so it is expected that this will be a tightly contested game and will provide plenty of excitement.
The game throws in at 12:15 today in Tallaght and Shannonside wish all the team the very best of luck.
(Castlerea manager Joe Henry)
